Is the software currently working with the Standard Ethershield? (W5100)

My implementation does not support W5100, however, in the future (when I finish the implementation for ENC28J60), I can add some #ifdef so the library can be compiled based on the controller you are using - if do you use W5100, it'll compile the standard library or if you use ENC28J60, it'll use my library.

Is the reliability of the W5100 a software issue? In that case does this library fix that problem?

As I don't know so much about W5100 internally, I can't answer to you. But my implementations consumes more memory than W5100's implementation, since ENC28J60 does only Ethernet layer and W5100 implements up to socket layer (so my library needs to "work" more than standard library).

Is the ENC28J60 a better shield than the standard W5100 board?Note: I use the Mega2560 board. The ethershield is the new one with the MicroSD card.

The ENC28J60 shield is unexpensive compared to W5100 (~50% of the cost), so I think even you are using more memory, it is good since you can pay less for have an Ethernet connection in your Arduino. In terms of performance, probably it is slower than W5100, since the TCP/IP stack is implemented in hardware in W5100 and is being implemented (I'm implementing) in software in ENC28J60.

Knowing that D2 isn't used in the libraries, that makes it pretty easy to add compatibility with Mega boards, and in fact I have already sent the code to alvarojusten and should be added soon to the libraries.

Also, Sure electronics's ENC28J60 based ethernet board is also compatible with the libraries as expected, but couldn't find any information about that before buying it.

Knowing that D2 isn't used in the libraries, that makes it pretty easy to add compatibility with Mega boards, and in fact I have already sent the code to alvarojusten and should be added soon to the libraries.

Oh! I forgot, the mega compatibility has the same issue, with shields that do not get SPI signals from the ICSP header, than the old ethernet shield, you have to bend the pins and connect cables to the SPI pins of the Mega board.

http://mcukits.com/2009/04/06/arduino-ethernet-shield-mega-hack/

This should be indicated in the readme, so the newcomers are warned, as the famous nuelectronics shield has this issue, in fact, all the shields listed in the reosurce file have this issue.

Also, in the resource file there is a link to http://blog.thiseldo.co.uk/?p=344 , but he has already released a newer one v1.6, http://blog.thiseldo.co.uk/?p=504

Oh! I forgot, the mega compatibility has the same issue, with shields that do not get SPI signals from the ICSP header, than the old ethernet shield, you have to bend the pins and connect cables to the SPI pins of the Mega board.

http://mcukits.com/2009/04/06/arduino-ethernet-shield-mega-hack/

This should be indicated in the readme, so the newcomers are warned, as the famous nuelectronics shield has this issue, in fact, all the shields listed in the reosurce file have this issue.

EtherCard based on official ENC lib, but there are a lot rewritten code, DNS realization, cool http server, new tcp-ip stack & etc.

Nice! I added this library to resources/resources.txt in my repository, thanks.I saw the code and it still needs improvements since it consists only in helper functions (like the original libraries, but EtherCard is easier to use) - it is not a socket layer and is not compatible with Ethernet.h code. But perhaps I can use some code this guy used (like DNS query) to improve my library.

Allows you to catch interrupts from the network. D2 is one of the pins that can use "AttachInterrupt()"It appears to require bridging a small jumper/solderbridge connection before it is actually connected.